Affordable Care Act provides an early lifeline to AIDS patients in Oakland

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Barack Obama’s signature law, the Affordable Care Act, this week came as a lifeline to the most needy in Oakland’s ongoing efforts to provide medical support to AIDS patients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approved California’s request to fast-track its transition to Affordable Care Act benefits on June 28, paving the way for the implementation of programs that give high priority to reducing the prevalence of HIV and providing affordable care to AIDS patients.

The agency’s approval, which was announced by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, (D) Oakland, at the California Prostitutes Education Project (Cal- Pep) in Oakland on Monday, will allow thousands of low income AIDS patients in Alameda County to benefit early from the provisions of the Affordable Care Act through access to California’s publicly funded MediCal program.

As a result of the decision, Californians infected with HIV will no longer have to wait for an AIDS diagnosis to be eligible for antiretroviral drugs under MediCal, and the state’s agencies will have more funding available to conduct HIV testing campaigns.

For other states, without the approval of similar provisions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, such benefits under the Affordable Care Act would only become available when the law comes into effect in 2014.

Read the rest of the feature story by Tawanda Kanhema here at Oakland North.